Back Alley Abduction
by Luckie D
Summary: During a stake out, Maria Frank is taken hostage and leaves the department and a flu-ridden John Munch to find who took her and why. JM/OFC. Rated for language, PTSD flashbacks/episodes of rape, and scary situations.
1. Chapter 1

**This wonderful fic came to mind while watching a Homicide episode of the little boy who was kidnapped. I thought, "Hey! How about having Maria get kidnapped and be my ol' evil self to cause them both drama!" With help from a very good friend with ideas and much needed logic with some shit in this, I'm going to be a drama llama now! Maria Frank is my own creation while John Munch belongs to Law and Order: SVU.**

"Stay down and just take this, okay?" Maria carefully demanded as she held out a tissue box for her partner and lover, John, to take. For the past week, he had developed a cold that rocketed to a full-blown flu. Not only was he miserable and whiny, he was also sneezing and coughing every second. Reaching for her thermometer, she held it near his mouth and waited for him to finish sneezing before slipping it under his tongue. "Just relax for me, John," Frank whispered softly, sitting down next him and softly ran her fingers through his ruffled hair.

Rolling over with a groan, he stared right ahead and fought to not cough while she took his temperature. He felt like he was on his death bed with dark circles under his eyes, very pale complexion and warm to the touch, his brown eyes were red, stiff and sore joints, and not able to keep anything down - including any medication she gave him to try. Exhaling a painful breath, he closed his eyes at the feel of a cool cloth wiping his forehead and reached a clammy hand out to touch Maria's back. Reaching back and taking a hold of his hand, she tightly smiled down at him as she waited for the two minutes to be up before checking.

Looking at her watch and seeing it was up, she pulled it out and looked at it sighing. "Well, you are out of commission for a while, baby." She sadly explained. "You're temperature is now up to one hundred and one degrees there, spike. You're not going anywhere for a while until this fever breaks and you stop worshiping the porcelain God."

"I'll work on that," John mutter hoarsely, his hand flying up to cover his mouth while he coughed a terrible dry cough. Grabbing a disinfecting wipe, Maria quickly wiped his hand, wrist and her own hands. "Going to work today or going in late?"

Nodding her head slightly, she tucked the corner of the comforter around his shoulders and said, "Yeah, I should head in. Fin and I are going to be staking out for The Pro Rapist." A man was going through the quieter and darker sides of the city and attacking prostitutes who had a certain body type. So far, five of the victims walked into the department with bruises and gashes from their attacks and it had frozen all the known locations where the women worked. It's been two weeks and they had very few leads to do the women being afraid and hiding at local shelters. "I'll check on you around my lunch hour, okay?"

Munch nodded as he slowly began to drift off with the cloth on his forehead. "Got my bucket?"

"Your bucket is right here in case you can't make it to the bathroom in time." She answered and pointed to the dark plastic trash bucket with a grocery bag in it just in case. Twice, he didn't make it to the bathroom in time and, twice, she had grabbed it in time to save his rugs. "I'll bring home some Gatorade and see if you can keep a small sip down. You need the electrolytes since you're getting dehydrated, Johnny-boy."

"Uh-huh," Was all he could say as he drifted off and sank deeper into the pillows she had around him for his joint pains, along with joint pain ointment she had rubbed in after she helped him with a shower. Maria had sat him down on the bed and soothing rubbed the ointment on his joints to help with the stiffness and soreness he felt ever single time he moved. Thankfully, the shower had helped release the pain around his eyes and he was no longer groaning every time he blinked.

Turning on the A/C on low and turning on the fan above the bed, Maria wanted him to be as comfortable as possible and wanted to cool his body down as much as possible. Under the comforter, she had ice packs wrapped in towels on the hottest spots on his body and she would only allow him to lay down in his boxers as his scrubs would have caused more heat. Hearing a small snort and more dry coughing, she turned to see he had jolted himself awake and stared up at her with a moan. "The air conditioner is on low so you won't get cold too quickly. If you really, really need me for something, here's your cell phone and I fully charged it last night for you. A sleeve of crackers in case you want to attempt to eat something, cold water for the same reason, and the heating pad is right here," She patted his side table and he eyes moved to see where the sound had come from. "I know you didn't quite hear what I just said, so I wrote down everything with a black marker so you can read it without trying too hard."

"Thank you," He whispered and sighed at the contact of her hand on his neck. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Maria smiled and then added, "I'm not going to kiss you, though. Last thing I need is your flu, baby."

* * *

"How's the patient?" Fin asked as they headed to the unmarked car and caught the keys she tossed to him.

Getting into the passenger seat beside him, Maria sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "He's one sick puppy, for one. He's not even able to keep anything down at the moment and is very dehydrated."

Fin shook his head sadly and turned a corner to the direction of where their stake out was going to be. "Nothin', huh?" Maria replied with a no and he sighed. "Well, hopefully Munch man won't be that sick for long and I don' need you to get it either, baby."

"Nah, we'll see though. I've been sleeping on the couch and changing the sheets, comforters and pillow cases every day once I get him in the shower. I want to limit the amount of contact he has with it as much as possible and I want _zero_ contact with it." She held up her hand and made an 'O' with her thumb and forefinger. "Nada, zippo and zilch. I caught him flu from last year and we were both miserable masses of puking guts, fighting over the trash bucket and toilet. It wasn't a pleasant fight at all, either." She said, as Fin chuckled at the idea of them fighting over something to puke in. "What?"

"Nothin'...just the image of you two fighting over something like that is beyond funny in my mind, kiddo." She playfully punched his shoulder and softly snorted. "Hey!"

"You're such a pain in the ass sometimes, Tutoula." Maria chuckled to herself and looked out the window to see a light drizzle starting. "A light drizzle for the start of our day... Go figure."

Fin shook his head as he turned to a free parking spot five feet from a known prostitute location the perp had been hanging around. "It's not like our days are perfect after all. This drizzle is nothin' compared to that blizzard you and I stood out in while under cover last winter. 'member that?"

"Oh, do I!" Frank grinned and slipped low in her seat to get comfortable. "I had the terrible case of the sniffles for weeks and John wouldn't sleep facing me until he was sure it was gone. I got bored looking at the back of his head after a while."

"That white hair and big ol' ears? Damn, girl. How is it none of his marriages worked out while being with you has?"

"Because we're both cops and understand each other." Her lips pulled into a small smile. "Not to mention I can take on his whining with black Helicopters. I'm not big with that, but I let him vent it out or he'll kick me all night long in his sleep from venting dreams. Those are a bitch and a half." Hearing her phone ring and pulling it out to see it was John calling, she gave Fin a look before answering. "Hey, sweetie. What's the matter?"

_"I wanted to check on you..." _She heard him pull away from the phone and gave a hoarse cough before he came back. _"Stake out going all right?"_

"Johnny-boy, you're a sick puppy and you're asking me if I'm okay? Sweetie...," She paused for a moment before continuing. "We started the stake out ten minutes ago and Fin and I are doing just fine. How are you feeling?"

John snorted into the phone and pulled away to sneeze several times. _"You've been gone for an hour and I'm still the same...Already had to make a run to the bathroom, too."_

"Oh, no," She sighed heavily into the phone and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Did you at least eat something so you had something to bring back up?"

_"Yeah, I tried a few crackers and that's as far as I went." _

"Good, that will give your system something to take in before you upchuck. I would like for you to take in some protein, but your system isn't taking any of that at all, so Gatorade might be your only choice. I'll pick up a six-pack of berry flavored Gatorade when I come home for my lunch, okay?"

_"All right then."_

"I have to get back to watching out for our perp, so go back to bed with some more ice packs I bought and brought over from my place and curl up with them. Is the air conditioner helping?" She heard him mutter a yes and the sound of the freezer door shutting. "That's my boy. I'll see you later, baby." Closing her phone and slipping it back into her pocket, she pulled up a pair of binoculars and looked around for the slightest detail that was out of line. "I'm glad he's checking up on me, but he's the one who should be resting."

"He cares even when he's pukin' up a lung," Fin sighed out as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched their area in question. "Why'd he do that?"

"Because he cares, Fin. Simple as that," She replied, shifting her eyes to glance at him before looking back out. "He gets shot in the ass and worries for my safety instead. He knows I can take care of myself - I'm not used to someone caring for me when I'm ill -but he doesn't want me to get hurt or anything close to that. What are you? Ever considered keeping a relationship to be as strong and John and I?"

Fin shrugged as he took the binoculars from her hands and looked out as well. "Thought about it, but I consider myself a loner and having a relationship here or there. If I can ever find a way to settle down, I would take that chance."

Huffing softly at what he had said, Maria settled down lower in her seat and watched their location.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my own creation. John Munch, Fin Tutoula and others belong to Law and Order: SVU. **

Four hours later -

"That's it, Fin," Maria rolled the windows down and earning a small breeze from the drizzle that had started when they started their stake out. "I'm in need of air and a coffee at this point. How much longer do we have?"

Fin glanced at the clock on the car radio and huffed to himself. "We have two more hours to go. You want come coffee?" She nodded and started opening to car door until Fin stopped her. "Nah, I'll go get it. Cream and sugar, right?"

"You got it." Frank grinned as he got out of his side of the car and headed into the coffee shop across the road. Watching until he disappeared into the store, she pulled the binoculars back up and watched the area until she heard a yell for help from the alley they were parked next to. Hearing another scream for help, Maria instantly climbed out of the car with her hands wrapped around her gun

Considering how dark the sky was with the light drizzle above them, it didn't make it easier to see who was calling for help as she headed down the dark alley slowly, her weapon held up by her head. Near the back of the poorly lit alley, she could see two figures and one had been forced to its knees while the other struggled to keep hold of the kneeled person. The closer she got, the view before became more noticeable - a woman was being restrained with a knife to her neck by their Pro Rapist suspect.

Before she could say 'Police!', an arm flew out from behind her - knocking her weapon to the ground - and instantly felt something sharp being pushed into her upper arm. With his arm firmly locked across her throat, the man dropped the syringe and attempted to hold her arms behind her back. Struggling against his hold, Maria watched in horror as the suspect slide his knife across the woman's throat - blood streamed down her neck like a waterfall and he dropped her to the ground like a doll.

Gasping for air and trying to holler for help, she watched him step over the dead body and head towards his partner and her. Pulling harder to free her arms, her elbow flew up and smacked his partner straight into his nose. Gasping in pain, his hold around her neck loosened and she struggled to free herself.

"Oh, no no," The suspect pushed her up against his partner and slapped his hand over her mouth before she could yell for help. "I don't think so, my dear." His dark eyes moved to his partner and whispered, "Pat, c'mon man... forget about your nose. If it's broken, we'll get it fixed. For now, _hold _the bitch."

"I'm tryin', man, but...," He paused to move his arm a little to get a good hold of Maria, who continued to struggle against their holds. "She's wigglin' like a worm."Clenching her teeth tightly, she paused for a small moment to catch her breath and could smell the copper stench of the woman's blood on his hand. "When is it goin' to take affect?"

Stepping closer until he was practically hovering over Maria's struggling body, he lowered his head and sickly whispered, "Just keep panicking like that and the drug will affect you faster." Frank heavily breathed against his hand and tried to free her arms once more. "Shhhh...struggling won't make it easier for you, detective." He grinned and softly chuckled as her struggles lessened and her eyes started to gaze over. "There she goes, Pat."

Pat slowly released his hold on Maria until she was completely out and dropped her to the ground. "Get her in the truck?"

"Yeah, get her out of here before her partner comes back out." He looked back at the dead woman behind him and smirked and the stream of blood that seemed to have flowed past where he was standing to the opening. "A perfect body for her partner to discover." He watched the coffee shop while his partner scooped up the unconscious Maria Frank and followed quickly behind him.

* * *

"Say that again, Fin?" Cragen demanded as he stood up from his desk.

Fin stood in the dark alley and repeated himself once again. "I'm sayin' someone abducted Maria and there's a body in the alley where I found her gun!" He kneeled down when he saw the syringe and added, "She's been drugged from the look of it. I need backup down here now!" On the outside, he was holding himself firm - once he noticed she was missing, he started searching around, found her weapon and instantly called Cragen. On the inside, however, he was scared shitless - he had to tell John and he was in no shape to even leave his bed. "Who's going to tell John?"

Don sighed heavily and he could feel the color leave his face. "Oh, shit...," He slumped down in his chair and closed his eyes. _What if she's been taken and raped and/or murdered? Oh, John..._ He knew someone who he really trusted was going to have to tell him and Fin was that person since they were both very close. "Fin, you're his, and her, closest friend. He would rather hear it from you then anyone else."

Fin closed his eyes and exhaled a slow breath to calm his nerves. "All right, boss. Just get back up down here and CSU to find anything so we can find her."Closing his phone and heading to his car, he drove as fast as possible to John's apartment and quickly headed to his door.

Inside the apartment, John was sitting next on the floor near the toilet and staring at the ceiling. For the past hour, he had been sitting there and fighting back the flu as best as he could - but was failing terribly. Hearing a knock at the door, he struggled to his feet slowly and shrugged on his robe. Opening the door a crack, he quickly noticed it was Fin with a not-so-good expression on his dark face. "Fin? What are you doing here?"

"Hey, John. Can I come in, please? This is important."

John stepped back gingerly and held the door open for him, his presence slowly alarming him. "What's going on? Where's Maria?"

Fin placed his hand on his shoulder and moved him to sit down at the table, picking his words carefully. "John, something happened-"

"What hospital is she in?"

"She's not in a hospital, man. I was gone maybe ten minutes and she...she's disappeared." John's eyes glazed a little and his body went numb. "I went to find her and I found only her gun and a syringe in the alley not far from where we were."

What color was left in John's face had disappeared and he swallowed heavily several times before finally asking, "You mean, someone's kidnapped her? She's gone?" Fin nodded slowly and John Munch, being in his condition, broke down.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank is mine. Rob and Pat are just two made up characters I came up with out of the blue. Others belong to Law and Order: SVU.**

"I'm tellin' ya Rob, she broke my fuckin' nose with her elbow!" Pat yelled at his partner after they arrived at the abandoned warehouse outside the city. Behind him, he pulled along the unconscious Maria Frank by the collar of her light work coat.

Rob shook his head and flipped on a light and pointed into a small dark room. "If you're so worried about your broken nose, you big ass baby, got to the cheap clinic and they'll straighten it out!" He pointed in the corner of the dark room and Pat dropped her roughly. "Hey! Don't damage what's going to get us money...," He bent down and removed her handcuffs, saying, "These can come into good use actually." Rolling her over and putting her wrists together, he handcuffed her hands together and removed the cuff keys from her belt and began to pat her down.

Pat, holding a towel over his bleeding nose, observed his partner and huffed. "What? Plannin' on findin' another gun on her?" Rob looked over his shoulder and stared at his partner. "Or are you plannin' on playin' with her?"

"Nope, what I'm doing is finding all of her little secrets on her belt and in her pockets. I don't want her to escape before we do the trade off and if we get the money."

"Oh, and how to you expect them to know we want money?"

He patted her pockets and chuckled, fishing out her cell phone. "This is how, my friend."

* * *

Fin walked back into John's apartment with a few things from the store for him to try. While checking the medicine cabinets earlier, he learned Maria had run out of Dramamine earlier in the week and had been planning on going out and getting more. Opening the box and extracting two pills, he walked into the bedroom and handed them to John, who was sitting on the edge of the bed partially dressed. "Here," He handed him the pills and a newly bought bottle of Gatorade. "Take these to help your nausea and the Gatorade to hydrate you since you're comin' with."

John slowly took the pills and bottle from his hands and gingerly swallowed each pill with a small sip of the berry flavored drink. "Thanks, Fin." He closed his eyes at the feeling of something cold in his stomach and wished it would stay down so he could help find Maria and bring her home alive. "Was there anything at the scene besides her gun and a syringe?"

"Well, there was a body there that's been moved to Warner's office and CSU is searching around for anything. It's been drizzling, so any hope of finding foot prints or finger prints on the syringe are limited. We'd be lucky if a foot print is found at this point."

He looked up at his dark partner with a troubled frown and sighed softly. "Let me finish getting dressed and we can get going." Once Fin left, he slowly stood up and reached into his closet for a suit and skipped the tie. Last thing he needed was a tie making him feel uncomfortable and, with his fever coming and going at strange times, it's just better to leave it off.

After fifteen minutes of slowly pulling on his clothes and taking breaks in between so he wouldn't overdue his already exhausted self, he followed Fin out of his apartment and settled in his car with the window fully rolled down for fresh air. Within no time, they made it back to the scene and John watched with a heavy heart as a CSU person bagged Maria's gun for evidence and he instantly sat down in the passenger seat.

"John?" He looked up to see Cragen walking over to him with a disappointed expression. "John, what are you doing here?"

"I'm not staying at home and waiting to hear any news if she's been found or not. I want to be here, Cap." He observed his Captain sigh heavily and place his hands on his hips. "I'm not going anywhere, Don, and that's final."

Before Don could say anything, his cell rang and answered it before looking at the ID. "Captain Cragen." In an instant, he frowned and demanded, "Who is this?"

_"Only the one holding the fate of your detective on his hands. Want her back? Have two thousand five hundred dollars ready within five days or you'll find her washed up on the Hudson River." _

"Wait! How do I know you're telling the truth and she isn't-"

_"You'll just have to take my word for it." _He heard a cold laugh over the line and grew angry. _"You can't talk to her at the moment anyway...she's still out of commission." _Before he could demand anything else, the call ended and Don looked at John with anger and fear etched in his face. "I'm so sorry, John."

He felt his blood run cold and his stomach rebelled again. "No, tell me she's not-"

"If we don't meet their demands, she will be."

* * *

With a swift kick to her stomach, Maria groaned and very slowly realized she was laying on a hard, cold floor. "C'mon now, detective. Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey, bitch." Pouring a cup of cold water over her, Frank coughed and hazily opened her eyes to see two blurry figures standing over her and one was continually tapping her with his foot. "There we go, huh? That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"Where the Hell...," She paused for a moment when one bent down and held something close to her face. The more everything came into view, she realized it was a cloth of some sort. "Who are you?"

Chuckling, Rob wrapped the cloth around her mouth and replied, "Possibly your worst nightmare, chicky." He watched as she slowly opened and closed her eyes as if she was going to drift off again. "Oh, I see someone needs a nap." He grabbed the front of her light work coat and sat her up against the wall.

Groaning softly, Maria tried to pull her arms free and noticed she couldn't. Pat, back from a free clinic with his nose bandaged up, kneeled down and observed her like he had never seen a cop before. "She sure is a pretty one, Rob. Are you sure you don't want to play with her?"

"I'm sure. If they don't make the payment in five days, however, then we can both have a little fun with her before dumping her body off in the river." Pat looked up at him with one raised eyebrow. "The Hudson River, you moron. We'll cut her up like the one in the alley and dump her off the bridge into the river! We talked about this, remember."

The blond haired and bulky man raised both of his eyebrows once he was reminded. "Oh, yeah. That's right." He turned his head back around and placed a finger under Maria's chin and lifted her head to look at her. "Damn, that Valium I gave her has left her in a damn good haze. When'd you think she'll fully snap out of it?"

Rob washed off his knife with a wet cloth and shrugged. "Give her a few hours or so. Once it's out of her system, she'll remember and possible struggle like a fucking fish on a hook to get free. When that happens, we'll have to tie her arms and feet as well."

"Keep her tied up for the full five days?"

He shook his head and sighed heavily. "For a nurse-in-training at the hospital, you're an idiot. No, we're not going to keep her tied up for the full five days." He walked over and smacked his partner up side the head with a tan hand. "She'll get blood clots, possibly require medical help and could even die. If they were to get the money and she's dead," He paused to look down at her and weaved his fingers through her wet hair. "They'll be out to kill us because she's dead. Know how close those are cops are out there with each other? All of them will be out to find and kill us once we're spotted. Got that?"

* * *

Standing in the men's bathroom and wetting a paper towel, Munch attempted to cool off his face after learning she could die if a certain amount of money wasn't collected in time. Once he left his suit jacket at his desk, he had headed straight for the bathroom to cool himself off and fight his fever back. Looking straight into the mirror, he certainly didn't look like himself with his pale complexion and a thin layer of sweat from his fever along the crevasses of his face. "Wait a minute...," With the situation at hand, no one had thought of _how _the abductors got Cragen's cell phone number and Maria had had her cell phone on her.

Rushing out of the bathroom as fast as he could muster from his stiff joints, he tapped Cragen on the shoulder and asked quickly, "Did you check the number on your cell when they called?" Understanding what he was saying, Don flipped his phone out and swore out loud at seeing the number. Taking the phone from him, Munch saw it was clearly Maria's cell number. "They used her phone. Isn't there a way to trace the call and see where it came from?"

"Could try, if the phone is on." George Huang said as he took the cell, wrote down the number and called an acquaintance who could trace phone calls. After a few minutes, Huang ended the call and said sadly, "Her cell phone was tampered with so we couldn't trace where the call came from and it's off." John slumped down in a chair and rested his forehead against his hand. "I'm sorry, but he said he would keep an eye on the phone's status if he turns it on or anything else happens."

John shook his head and loosened the top button on his shirt. "Yeah, sure. Like they're going to use her phone to call a pizza or anything close to that. From the state of the woman who was killed in the alley, if we locate where they're holding her and they find out, they'll kill her without a second thought!"

"John!" Don placed his hand on his shoulder and he looked up at his boss. Lowering his voice so only he would hear it, he said, "John, I know you're scared for her - all of us are worried for her safety and well-being. Let's not think the worse thing, though."

"What about the amount of money they want in trade for her? If I had that kind of money, I would offer it up in a heart beat, but I don't."

Fin spoke up, choosing his words carefully. "The money doesn't have to come from you or from any of us. Narcotics has that kind of money, but we can't get our hands on it if the Chief of Ds doesn't approve it." Munch stared up at him and sighed. "It's the only way, bro."

"Worse thing they could do with her at the moment is-" Elliot was quickly silenced by a glare from Cragen and said instead, "Well, the worse thing would be away from home since it's getting dark now and-"

"And being held somewhere without being properly medicated and might just have flashbacks while in their grasp." Munch heavily sighed and closed his eyes to fight oncoming nausea because of his fear.

* * *

Groaning out a sigh and opening her eyes to see nothing except darkness, Maria pulled at the handcuffs and quickly noticed her arms were also tied. Moving her legs, she could feel ropes had been wrapped around her ankles and she kicked out in frustration.

Closing her eyes and exhaling a heavily breath to calm her nerves. _Oh God. Oh God. Oh God...oh, please. _Feeling her pulse rising, she pulled at the handcuffs again and then an image flashed in her head. _Oh no. no. NO! _The feel of the handcuffs against her wrists soon caused her body to tremble and she soon realized she was having flashbacks to her rape.

Looking around the fully black room she was in, she could have sworn she heard Kevin's laugh and closed her eyes, but it didn't stop the sight of him hovering over her with his pocket knife glistening and covered in her own blood. Now beginning to panic and opening her eyes again, Maria Frank struggled to to control her breathing. _C'mon, please don't start now. Noooo..._She struggled against the handcuffs once again and gasped out a tearful cry until she couldn't take the pain much longer and relaxed a little.

Heavily breathing and feeling her heart beating in hear ears, Kevin's haunting voice rang through her ears again and she groaned loudly, pulling at the cuffs in a terrifying attempt to free herself from what had held her restrained at his hands. Feeling terrible pain and something warm trickling down her palms, she knew instantly she had broke the skin and looked around frantically and froze when she saw a flash of Kevin in front of her eyes. Feeling her heart pounding hard and fast in her chest, she struggled to get away from the horrifying face of her rapist and torturer. For five agonizing hours, he had raped her and slashed terrible gashes into her flesh before finally attempted to finish her off with a slash across her throat, which was her most visible scar. Now, she was seeing the ghostly image of his terrifying grin in front of her face and his laugh rang through her ears as she tearfully screamed against her gag.

Tears rolled down her face as she fought against her restraints and smacked the back of her head against the wall. Slightly dazed, she shook her head and a voice rang in her head - _calm down, Maria. You know you can do this, sweetheart. _John's calming voice began to rang in her ears and she closed to eyes to try and concentrate on his voice. _You know I love you no matter what happens, right? _Inhaling a shuddering breath, she nodded to herself and could practically hear Kevin's laugh and voice fading as John's grew louder in her head. _You know you can do it. Just take some deep breaths and concentrate on my voice, baby._

_I'm trying, John. I'm just so scared right now, _She thought as she leaned her head back against the wall and inhaled a deep breath. Exhaling it slowly, she opened her eyes and blinked back her tears. _Oh God, John. I need you.  
_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my own creation. Pat and Rob are just thought up things. All others belong to Law and Order: SVU.**

Leaning back in his chair and at the top of his desk, John Munch inhaled a slow breath as he figured out how long he had been up. _Twelve hours..._, he thought once he figured out his calculations. While laying down earlier in the crib, an uneasy feeling had rolled through his body and he had instantly felt sick to his stomach. He instantly knew something terrible had happened with Maria and he couldn't shake the feeling for several hours.

Now he was left with the option of being wide awake in case the feeling came over him again. Observing the screen-saver on his computer, he leaned forward and lazily flicked the mouse to see his desktop and searching around for any person who would have fit the profile Huang had earlier been working on. It was possibly the only thing he could do to help find her without going out, doing his own detective work and then getting into serious trouble with Cragen. Fin and Elliot were the primaries on the case and he was just there for support and to hear what was going on without being in the way or going crazy at home. Reaching for one of the two mugs of tea, he stared into what was left of his Earl tea and took a small sip to help give him enough caffeine to keep him awake.

Turning back to his computer, he continued his search for a potential suspect as a witness had not stepped forward.

* * *

"Well, I'll be damned, Pat," Rob observed as he kneeled down and removed the gag from an emotionally exhausted Maria. "Hey, detective. Looks like you had one hell of a night." Blinking a few times and staring at the man before her, she slightly struggled against the cuffs and gasped out in pain. Placing a hand on her shoulder and pulling her forward, Rob looked behind her and sighed. "Damn bitch hurt herself during the night. Go get the First Aid kit."

"What'd she do?"

She pulled at the cuffs and broke her skin, the dumb cluck. Give me the First Aid kit!" Reaching behind him and ripping the kit from Pat's hands, he reached into his pocket and unlocked the cuffs. "Put her in the chair and hold her down so I can take care of this." Pat grabbed her under her arms and sat her down in the chair, untying her arms and placing his hands on her shoulders. Bending down and looking in her eyes, Rob continued to stare at her until she frowned and struggled a little. "Glad to see you have some spunk in there." He firmly held her right hand, he cleaned the wound and smirked when she inhaled a sharp breath at the stinging feeling. "That hurts, doesn't it?"

"What the fuck do you want with me?"

"You and your fellow cop buddies have been looking for me while I've been culling out the whore population." He looked up with a dangerous smile. "I don't like that. I like doing my work and I don't like being interrupted by the panties police." He wrapped up the wound with a white bandage and moved to work on her left hand. "For now, we're holding you hostage until they pay up the money I want. If they don't," He paused to get her full attention and continued, "They'll find you washed up on the Hudson River." Struggling against Pat's hold of her shoulders, Maria's feet had contact with Rob's family jewels and he fell back. Getting back up, he whipped out his knife and held it to her throat with a snarl. "Keep that up and I'll kill you right here!"

Frank's eyes widened as a flashback came over her and her struggling stopped. Heavily swallowing and nodding her head, he pulled it away and stashed it back in his belt. Squeezing her eyes shut and struggling not to make a sound from the stinging on the rubbing alcohol being dabbed at the wound, she trembled slightly when Pat squeezed her shoulders. It made her very uncomfortable.

Taking rope and tying her hands together behind her back, Pat dropped back on the floor and sat down in the chair, staring at her. "We do need to feed her, don't we?"

"Duh, she's not a camel." His partner placed the kit back on the shelf outside the small room and sighed. "Let's go get her a sandwich and something to drink, Pat. We'll be back, detective. Don't damage yourself again or we'll just let you suffer next time." With a slap of the door, Maria was once again covered in darkness.

* * *

"How long has he been here?" Olivia Benson asked Don quietly as she watched John exit the bathroom after a wave of nausea took him moments earlier. In his hand was a wet paper towel and he looked drained.

Don sighed softly and observed his exhausted Sergent. "He's been here all night and staring at his computer, looking up potential suspects."

"What makes him think the perp or perps are in the system?"

"It's all he can do, Benson. He's not being allowed on the streets in his condition and how personal it is." He marched over to Munch's desk and waited until he looked up with dark circles under his eyes. "John, why don't you go lay down in the crib for a little bit. You're pushing yourself a little too hard at the moment and your body is telling you to slow down."

"I can't, Cap." His eyes showed how depressed, tired and emotionally drained he was. "I can't lay down until I find out who has her. It's already been a day since she was taken and...," He paused for a moment and tried to control himself from tearing up in front of his boss. "And I don't know if they've done harm to her. The first forty-eight hours are the most critical hours and I can't take the chance of missing one second to find the fucker who took her. I can't stop now, Cap."

Walking away and motioning to Liv to come close, Don lowered his voice and watched John turn back to the computer. "Give him a woman's touch, won't you?" Benson began to object, but he stopped her. "Look, he needs a push from a woman to remind him to get rest and eat. How about this, take him to the snake machines and get him a ginger ale and a candy bar."

"A candy bar? With his health?"

"Just something to give him a sugar rush and then he'll crash to the point he gets some sleep. If he's not going to leave him computer, except to only hide in the men's bathroom, I want him to crash."

Finally agreeing to to take John to the machines and, with gentle yet firm pushes, she got him to the machines. Picking up the ginger ale, she popped it open and asked him to take a sip. Observing him carefully, she reached for a kit kat bar for him to nibble on when he felt like it. Eying it carefully, he wasn't sure if he wanted to try and eat just a little, but the more he stared at it, the more his stomach pains grew and he reluctantly took it. "If I start puking, I'm going to blame you."

"Just eat something, John. If you do, it'll give your stomach to bring up."

Sighing and deeply thinking of how he really needed to eat something, he opened the wrapper and took a small bite. Only time would tell.

* * *

Lifting Maria to her feet and walking her to the chain-linked enclosure on the other side of the warehouse, Rob undid the ropes around her wrists and tossed her a sandwich wrapped in brown paper wrapping. "There's your lunch and here's," He tossed in a bottle of water, "Is something to drink." She was starving, but she didn't dare touch them. "What? Wondering if we poisoned them? If we're going to get paid, why would we poison you, detective?"

"Poison me enough to make me sick, but not kill me."

He huffed and shook his head. "I guess being a cop has made you paranoid. We did not poison or drug your food. Chill out, eat and walk around. In the back is a bathroom and you better use it since you're going to be tied up again for the rest of the night."

Carefully observing him and then moving to eye the sandwich and water tossed to her, she kneeled down and picked them up carefully. She was dreadfully hungry and her sugar was dropping to a dangerous level. Nervously, she unwrapped the sandwich and quickly noticed it was a ham sandwich. Muttering to herself, she opened it up and tossed the ham aside, nibbling on the bread and lettuce. Hearing a vulgar remark from Rob and ignoring it, Maria Frank did what she could to raise her blood sugar and leaned back against the wall until her head stopped spinning.

Grabbing for the water, she took small sips and watched her two abductors carefully as they sat at the far side of the warehouse with their own meals and glanced in her direction every now and then. Even after one day of being held in their warehouse, Maria was already looking like a wreck. She had now been without her medication for over twelve hours and was already feeling the effect of not having her daily cocktail of pills. Running her fingers along the bandage of her left wrist, she struggled to keep a flashback from reminding her of when she awoke in the hospital those years back with bandage wraps around her wrists and throat while the gashes on her body had been stitched up and covered up with more bandages. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she finished off the last of the bread, lettuce and tomato before wrapping up the slices of ham in the brown paper wrapping.

Finally, she stood up and headed down the back of the enclosure and found the bathroom which, thankfully, had a sink where she could wash off her face. Splashing cold water on her face, she glanced at herself in the small mirror and could see a reflection that wasn't her. It was someone else entirely and it scared Frank; she was pale with dark circles under her eyes and the effect of not having her meds was becoming visible in her green eyes. Gripping the edges of the sink with her hands, she watched as one of her abductors walked towards where she was.

"Let's go now. You've had enough free time," Pat demanded as he reached in and grabbed her upper arm, dragging her out of the small, dingy bathroom and roughly grabbed her wrists to tie them behind her back. Steering her in the direction of the small room again, he forced her down to sit on the floor and roughly tied her arms and legs to deal with another evening and night alone.

Watching the door close and covering her in darkness, Maria Frank inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly to steady her nerves.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my own creation. John Munch and others belong to Law and Order: SVU. **

One day later -

John Munch was working on overdrive to find Maria, who had been kidnapped three days ago. His body hurt all over from sleeping in the crib when Cragen ordered him to, his eyes were sore from staring at his computer screen for no reason most of the time and there was always a bathroom stall free just in case he needed it. The first forty-eight hours were already past and he was slowly loosing hope of finding her alive, in the back of his mind.

Don Cragen stood in the entrance way of his office with his arms crossed over his chest. His Sergent was ill, exhausted to the highest level and beyond talking to about taking care of himself. Dark circles were also under his eyes, but that was normal for him since he was the captain, but his squad was suppose to be a well-rested bunch and they were running on dry at this point.

He, too, was loosing some hope of finding her. He didn't want to loose hope, but the first forty-eight hours were very important and they were past that. Instead of finding a living person, they would normally start looking for a body. For John's sake, and for the sake of the squad, they couldn't bring themselves to look for a body after the ransom call they got after she had been taken.

Maria Frank's cell phone activity was still being watched by Huang and his acquaintance, but it hadn't been on since the call had been made. After taking with the Chief of Ds, Don's hands were tied and the decision was on the Chief's shoulders to decide if they could use money from Narcotics to get her back or she was a goner. He was hoping to get a call soon, but time was running out with two days to go.

* * *

Sitting in the corner of the dark room, Maria had spent another night awake out of fear and was no longer thinking clearly - she couldn't even remember her name at this point. Barely hearing a door unlocking and opening, she lifted her head to see one of her captor's, Pat, walk in with a bag of possible food for her to attempt to eat. She was no longer being tied down with her arms and legs bound together, but her hands where tied behind her back as usual.

Placing the bag down and reaching behind her, he untied her hands and handed her a sandwich. "Here, eat that before you pass out." He said casually, placing a bottle of water next to her. She barely touched the water, but slowly opened the wrapper and pulled chucks of bread from it. Pat sat down at the chair and observed her as she tossed the ham to the side again and nibbled at the tomato. "Guess you don't like ham then, huh?" She lifted her eyes and shook her head. "Well, here," He opened his sandwich and handed her the slices of roast beef. "While my buddy isn't here, best eat that down before he comes in, got it?"

Maria nodded her head slowly and took a bite from the meat. After a few minutes, she lifted her head and asked, "Why'd you do that?"

"Because you're different." Pat explained and took a drink from his flask. "We've held girls for days and none of them have lasted as long as you have, detective. You're strong and they weren't." Frank continued to stare up at him with empty eyes. He sighed and moved his chair closer. "Look, since holding you, I've noticed you are very different then from those whores we had held captive. Rob? He's just insane and I got in it big time for the thrill of the hunt."

"'The hunt'?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Normally, we would have roughed them up on the first night, but this is the first time he's wanted money in exchange for your life. Got that?" She nodded in understanding. "Rob's in charge, but I'm sure you figured that out."

Finishing off the slices of meat, she nodded and then froze hearing the door open. Stuffing his sandwich in its bag, Pat moved the chair back and took another sip from his flask when Rob walked in. "Two more days, Pat and we'll have the moment of truth." He eyed Maria with a smirk and pulled her cell phone from his pocket. "How about we make a call?"

* * *

"Look! I know all of you are working overtime, but finding Maria is our number one case. Work the other cases as best as you can, but focus on finding her." Don ordered his tired and wayward detectives. Hearing his phone ringing, he answered it and froze when he heard the voice on the other end. Hitting the speaker button, he motioned for everyone to be quiet as he said, "What do you want?"

_"Just looking for an update, Captain Cragen. We do have two days left before the deadline, you know." _

Hearing a voice that sounded cold and terrifying, John jumped up and rushed to Don's office. Knowing to stay quiet, he slightly prayed they would let them hear her voice. _Please, let her be all right. Please, God. Please._

"How do we know she hasn't been harmed by you at this point?" Don must have read his mind and requested, "Let me hear her voice before we go any further."

_"Fine." _Hearing a rustling and the sound of a chair squeaking in the background, they heard a faint "_Don?" _coming from the other end. _"Cap, is that you?" _

He sighed and his heart sank at the faint sound of her voice. "It's me, Maria. Are you okay?"

They heard her huff softly and said, _"I'm alive at the moment. Does that count?" _

"It counts, Detective. It counts."

"_Good, because-Ow!" _They heard her yelp in pain and what sounded like an sadistic laugh on the other end. "_Enough chitchat, Captain. Let's talk business. You have two days left to get the money at exactly noon or you'll never hear her sweet voice ever again." _

Don glanced up at his squad and saw John's face was practically red with anger. "Fine. We'll get the money and be there at noon." With a click on the other end, the call was ended. "John?" The tall Sergent looked up with tears in his eyes. "We'll get her back, I promise."

"I hope so, for her sake." He marched out of his office and slumped into his chair. He was practically shaking with anger and fear for her safety.

"Excuse me?"

Hearing a voice near him, he looked up and saw it was a mother with her teenage son. "Yes? Can I help you?"

She moved closer, holding onto her son's sleeve. "Yes, my son saw something that can be linked to your detective abduction three or so days back." He stood up and motioned for her to sit. Did they finally have a lead? "My son was on outside our apartment when he told me he thought he saw a struggle in the alley way where the paper says this detective disappeared."

"Three days ago!" John demanded and the woman jerked her son roughly to get him to take her seat. "What else did you see, kid?"

The boy looked up at his mother and sighed heavily. "Yeah, like my old woman said - I saw a struggle in an alley way. I thought it was a drug deal goin' sore and didn't say anything to her until half an hour ago. I did see a white van - the kind you see for plumbers - leave a few minutes after the struggle. Could have been a getaway vehicle for all I care, dude. Even saw part of a license plate, too."

Telling them to stay where they were, he rushed back to Don's office and repeated what he had said. "Cragen, we have a lead," He finished once he was done explaining.

He stood up from his desk and went into rush mode. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Elliot and Liv; I want you two to talk to the boy again. John, I want you to go with Fin to get find matching vehicle and license plates. We may just get our chance to find her before the two days are up!"

* * *

"Damn, man. Why'd you have to chuck her like that?" Pat asked as he hoisted Maria up on her feet and sat her back down in the corner of the room. Once Rob got wind she was going to go into some details, or so he thought, he had grabbed her roughly by her arm and tossed her to the hard concrete floor. She was nursing her right wrist and holding her breath from the pain. "Great! She probably has a broken wrist now!"

"Who cares? They have two days left. At this point, they probably don't care if she comes to them half dead." He shut her phone off again and shoved it into the desk. "Tie the bitch back up and don't talk back at me, Pat. I have no reason to keep you around, pal!" He pointed a threatening finger at his partner with a frown on his features. "Don't make me kill you, too."

His partner sighed and picked up the robe to tie her hands behind her back. Hearing her gasp in pain from her wrist, he sighed sadly and started thinking of a decision. He couldn't live like this anymore. With one more pitiful look at her, he closed the door and locked it, leaving her in complete darkness once again.

Several hours later -

Maria's eyes snapped open after drifting off for a few hours and her heart pounded in her chest. A very familiar voice rang in her head and she wished for it to go away, but it never did. Kevin's laughter rang in her head and she struggled against her bonds once again. Crying out from the sharp pain from her wrist, she stopped and struggled to move into a different position. With how drained she was of energy, she could only kick her legs out with frustration and sighed. She was sure there was a bruise on the back of her skull from smacking it against the wall the first time in the dark hell she was in, but she didn't care when she banged her head back when she swore she saw something flash in front of her eyes. "Oh, please God...no," She breathed heavily as she closed her eyes when the tears began to fall once again.

Listening to her heart pounding in her chest, she bite down on her bottom lip as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate on the one person who could help her. After ten minutes of concentrating on John's voice on her head, her eyes snapped open at an idea. Bundling up what strength she had, Maria tucked her legs close to her body and leaned in one direction while stretching her arms as far as she could with the pain pounding in her right wrist.

Much her own surprise, she soon had her arms in front of her instead of behind her. Hoisting herself back up into a sitting position, Maria took in a deep breath to steady her nerves. She knew her days were numbered if the money wasn't collected and she wasn't take a chance now. For the first time since being in hostage, she could reach the pocket knife she hid inside her boot and slipped it out with her left hand. Bringing it to her lips, she pulled the blade out with her teeth and began she saw at the ropes that held her hands together.

With no time at all, she managed to break through the rope and moved to the rundown desk in the room. With the light switch outside the room, she was left to fumble in the dark for her phone. Rob had made one mistake - leaving her phone in the room with her. "C'mon...where is it?" She thought out loud to herself. Opening another drawer and instantly came in contact with it. "Yes!"

Flipping it open and holding down the On button, she instantly hit Cragen's office number and held it close to her ear, heart pounding as she waiting for him to answer. "Don Cragen."

"Don! It's me. Look, I don't have much time, but I can give some hints of where I am." She heard him fumble for a piece of paper and a pen. "Ready?"

"Go."

"It's an old Abandoned warehouse outside the city. It's huge and in a very remote area...possibly construction of some sort. There are two men and one's named Rob and the other Pat."

"Where are you located in the building?"

"I'm not sure, but I think this used to be an office of some sort. I'm banged up pretty bad myself, but I've held out this long." She sat down in the chair carefully and wished she could inspect her wrist to see if it was broken or sprained. "I just want to come home, Don."

He could hear how exhausted she was and knew time was running out for her. "I know, Maria. We finally got a tip and we're trying as hard as we can."

"Well, you have their names now, so that should make it easier for you."

"Yes, it will. Listen, before you have to leave, John's been worried sick. What should I tell him?"

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. _Oh, John._ "Just...tell him I'll see him soon. Okay?"

Don understood and told her so. Before he could ask her a question, he heard her gasp and a hasty, 'I got to go', before the call was ended.

**To be continued...**

**Note - It's taken me a while to actually get around to finishing this up since my brother has gone away for the summer and it's pretty hard on both of us. I don't get to hear from him until Wednesday and he's been gone since last week. Since this is a depressing-ish thing I'm working on, I couldn't bring myself to working on it with the state I'm in until now. So, there's my lame excuse, but it's the truth.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my creation. Rob and Pat are two wackos I came up with just for this fic. All others belong to Law and Order: SVU. **

Rob grabbed Maria roughly by her swollen wrist and twisted it, causing her to cry out in pain. "You sly piece of shit," He snarled as she fell to her knees from the pain. "Pat, take that phone and crush it." Pat took the phone from her hand, dropped it to the ground and smashed it with his boot. "I'm done playing games with this bitch, man."

"What are you goin' to do?" Pat asked, his eyes darting to the woman crying in pain at Rob's feet.

He smirked and answered, "Well, they have one day left. How about we go down to the river a day early." Maria struggled to free herself despite the pain when she heard what he said. Yanking her arm one way, she fell over with a gasp of pain and his fist made contact with the side of her head. "Cool it or I'll kill you right here!" He yelled and she went silent with fear. "Go get the truck and put in her in. We'll head to the dock on the east side of the river and I'll call up the captain around midnight to say where to meet."

Once Pat left and Rob turned his back, Frank reached for a piece of plastic from her broken cell phone and scratched a few words into the wall. Within five minutes, she heard footsteps heading in her direction and through the piece under the desk, making sure her finger prints where very clear on it. Feeling Pat's hands grab her, he hoisted her up and tossed her into the back of the truck with a look she couldn't really understand. It wasn't anger or sympathy, but possibly a mix of both?

Sighing, Pat closed the door to the it and she began she shake with fear, pain and exhaustion. Glancing down at her right wrist, it was bruising and swollen from being fractured. Holding it close to her body, she shifted with her left hand into a sitting position and closed her eyes that John and the squad would find her soon.

* * *

"Fin, get everyone up. NOW!" Don yelled from his office with a hint of panic in his voice. "Maria's in danger."

Tutoula ran into the crib and woke his three teammates up. John slowly sat up and grabbed for his glasses as he headed out the door to Don's office. "What's happening?"

"Maria managed to get out of her bonds not too long ago and she was caught after giving me some information of where she is. How are we doing with the narrowing down the vehicles?"

Fin answered, "I've narrowed it down to a hundred vehicles. Anything new?"

"Look for anyone matching the names Rob or Pat as a first name." Fin nodded and headed out to narrow his search. "Elliot and Olivia; I want you two to get a team together and search all abandoned warehouses in the Newpark Industry district. That's the only place where warehouses have been abandoned and cell phone reception is clear as a bell." They both nodded and headed out. "John, I would like you to help Fin sort out all vehicles he has found by now. Once they find get the team together, you go with them and look for her."

Munch nodded and joined Fin by his desk and took some of the papers from the pile of matching vehicles he had found. After several minutes of looking through the driver licenses, Fin glanced over at his partner and said quietly, "I'm sorry I didn't watch her better, bro. Everything looked normal when I left her and-"

"Don't." John stopped him softly, keeping his eyes on the papers. "You didn't know anything was going to happen to her. Just like you didn't know you were going to be shot a few years back." He glanced up at his dark colored partner and held the gazed. "I don't blame you even though you think I should." co

Tutoula sighed and placed another paper to the side. "I'm just feeling responsible, that's all. She and I were partners on the case and she disappeared under my watch, man."

Munch gave him a look that said 'drop it' and went back to looking at vehicles. "If need be, we'll discuss this later and once we have her back, you and she can talk it over. How about that?"

"Works for me." Fin agreed and went back to looking at driver licenses and vehicles.

An hour into their search, John froze at reading one name and said, "Look at this this!" Fin leaned over and saw the name 'Peters, Robert' and the matching license plate number that the teenage boy had seen. "This must be it, right?"

"Gotta be," Fin pulled out his notes and compared the two - they matched. "Show that to Cragen and I'll call El to tell them."

John moved quickly to Don's office and explained to him what he had found. "Fantastic. Once Elliot and Olivia return with a team being put together, I want everyone to wear vests since these men have shown they will use force." Munch nodded firmly and headed out.

* * *

"You're gonna kill her, aren't you?" Pat asked once they pulled up to a river dock and parked the vehicle behind a shed. Rob left the van without answering and he repeated as he exited the van, "Hey, are you goin' to kill her?"

Not yet, but keep asking me and I'll take care of her right here and now." He yanked open the trunk and grabbed a struggling Maria by the leg. "C'mere, now." He snarled as she moved back like a cornered dog who growled to warn him away. "I'm going to break your fuckin' leg if you keep struggling with me, detective!" He yanked your forward and grip the back of her neck with his other hand. "Are you going to keep struggling with me or do I have to break your legs and arms to get you to behave?"

Pat shook his head and placed his hands on his hips when Maria quietly whimpered and stopped struggling. "Rob, this isn't right..."

"You're having second thoughts about this? We've done this for months now and now you're grown some balls right before the grand finale? Jesus Christ, Pat!" He pulled Maria completely out of the trunk and she landed on the ground with a hard thud.

"I'm just sayin' since all the other girls were whores and hookers. This one is a cop, man. A detective of the police force! Kill her and the own police department are going to be huntin' down our asses."

M-M

Kicking in the door to the second warehouse they were checking, Fin yelled, "Police!" as they stormed in with weapons drawn and clad in vests. Spreading out, the squad and the team that had been put together searched all rooms and chain link enclosures.

Seeing a pile of what appeared the be a jacket, John rushed over and picked through the pile to find Maria's badge and ID. "Hey, guy!" They came over to see what he had found. "They were here." He struggled to keep his emotions from breaking over as he opened her ID and glanced at her photo.

"Hey!" They turned their heads to see an officer standing outside of what appeared to be an office. "I found something in here."

Sprinting over, they walked in and saw the cut ropes, pocket knife and crushed cell phone. "That's her phone and knife," John explained as he pulled out a glove and picked up the open knife. Turning it a little, he could see her initials in the side. "Yeah, this is her's."

"There's a small amount of blood over here. Not enough to worry us, but there's blood." Elliot said, kneeling down at the small puddle and what appeared as a fingerprint in the blood. "We have a finger print."

Munch turned a little to see it and he could feel his anger rising in his chest. He prayed it wasn't from being assaulted and looked around the room with his flashlight. Seeing something scratched in the floor, he walked over and saw the words 'River east dock' in her hand writing. "She left us a hint of where they are."

The officer walked back in and announced, "A uni saw a van matching the description down by the river. Two men were arguing and he said it looked like a woman was on the ground."

Don Cragen motioned them to get moving. "Let's move, people!"

* * *

Struggling to her feet and leaning against the truck, Maria watched the two men argue. No matter how hard she tried to run, her legs couldn't do it and she was already too weak to move quickly to get away. Groaning, she slid back down to the ground and closed her eyes from the pain throughout her body. She was exhausted, sore, bruised, and now stuck with definite broken wrist throbbing from the pain.

"C'mon, man. Just because she's holding on longer then any of the other girls did, doesn't mean you should kill her now." Pat tried to reason with his partner and drag it out as long as possible for him to think of a way to get her out and away from Rob. Problem was, he could clearly see she wasn't able to do anything for a while. She could walk, but having the effort to actually escape with the state she was in was out of the question.

Rob looked around and saw her leaning next to the rear tire. "You think so? Please! Those whores we took care of were screaming at us seconds before we slid that knife across their throats. This one doesn't look like she's ready to yell for anything."

Pat fell silent and frowned. He was running out of ideas.

M-M

"All right, I can see them," Don whispered as he looked through a pair of binoculars. "Looks like the blond man is trying to reason with the dark haired man, who is looking like an aggressive son of a bitch. That could be the one to worry about."

John reached for the binoculars. "Let me see." Looking through them, he slowly scanned over the pair of men and noticed something near the rear tire. "What a minute...that's Maria!" He handed them back to Don and pointed her out. "She's leaning against the rear tire on the left. See her?"

"I see her. She's not looking too good either. Looks like she was trying to escape and couldn't do it." Lowering them, Cragen thought up a plan thoroughly as possible so she wouldn't be harmed. "Okay, this is what we're going to do."

An hour later...

Elliot Stabler, disguised as a homeless man, aimlessly stumbled near where the van was. Noticing the men were ignoring him, he walked into the back of the shed and grabbed Maria's attention by waving his hand. Seeing her eyes looking right at him, he motioned her to stay put for a little while longer and she nodded.

Pat, noticing she was motioning to someone, he kept his cool and not give away anything to his partner. Glancing at his beer and keeping his attention at the traffic going by, he closed his eyes when something fell where Stabler was hiding and Rob jumped to his feet. "What the fuck was that?" Roughly grabbing Maria by her upper arm, he yanked her over to where they were and pulled his knife out of his belt. "C'mon out, who ever you are!" His eyes narrowed when he saw rustling and placed the knife against her neck. "All right, I'm tired of playing these games. either come out now or-"

"I'm coming," Elliot said as he stepped out with his hands raised. "I'm not armed."

Rob nodded. "Good, because if you were, she would drop dread the second I saw a weapon." His eyes shifted from Maria to Elliot and tried to make a connection. "Let me guess...you're another detective, huh?" Elliot didn't do anything. "Let me guess again, there are more of you around here, right?" He still didn't make any motion to nod or shake his head. He knew the second the metal plate moved he was near, the plan came crashing down and now Maria had a knife being held to her throat and her eyes showed how afraid she was. Another knife was being held to her throat and the slash from this one was bound to kill her before anyone was able to rush to her safety.

"The game's over, Robert!" Don Cragen's voice rang out and the three men and woman turned their heads in the direction to see the rest of the squad and a team of officers walking slowly towards them with guns raised. "There is no way out except to release the detective and give up quietly."

Huffing to himself, Rob tightened his hold on her and kept the knife near her left ear. "You think it's that simple? She'll be dead before a bullet touches me, Captain."

"I understand that, but we can all end this quietly if you give up now and not add another death under your name."

Pat's eyes shifted from the cops surrounding where they were and his partner, who was willing to die just to kill one more person. Seeing how much Maria was starting to tremble in his grasp, he quickly moved to push her away from Rob's hold. Feeling sharp pain in his back, the blond haired man quickly noticed he had just been stabbed by his partner and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain.

Landing hard to the ground, Maria tried hard to scramble to her feet and struggled hard when an arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Easy. It's just me, Maria." Lifting her pale face, she saw it was John holding her with his gun drawn and aimed at Rob. Seeing him reach for a hidden pistol in Pat's belt, John made up his decision and pulled the trigger and Rob fell to the ground like a rag doll.

Releasing a long held breath from his chest, Munch glanced down at Maria in his arms and held her closer as her silent tears fell. Her eyes were blank from the nightmare she had been through and he felt his heart drop. "Cap, we need to get her to the hospital now," He demanded, seeing how bruised and swollen her right wrist was. "She needs medical attention."

"I just want to go home, John." She mumbled against his chest.

Shushing her softly, he handed his weapon to Olivia. "Can't do that right now, Mar. Let's go to the hospital and get you taken care of." Seeing she was drifting in and out of consciousness, he added, "You can get some sleep at the hospital as well and I'll be right there with you. Okay?"

She nodded against his chest and closed her eyes for a moment, hearing the siren of an ambulance getting louder.

**To be continued...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer - Maria Frank in my creation. All others belong to Law and Order: SVU. **

Mercy Hospital -

Sitting in the chair next to the hospital bed, an exhausted John Munch waited patiently for Maria to wake up after being rushed to the hospital for a check over, place her broken right wrist in a plaster cast, stitch up her deepest cuts and clean her up. With pain killers and IV fluids to rehydrate her, she was now sleeping off the exhaustion she had and knowing he was right there to watch over her.

In his hands, he held her badge and ID after it had been cleaned and checked over by the Crime Scene Unit for finger prints and anything suspicious. Her gun was waiting in his lock box at his apartment for her to snuggle it back into her holster.

"John?" Munch lifted his head to see Fin standing in the doorway. "Hey, mind if I come in?"

He motioned with his head for him to walk in and pointed to where an extra chair was located. "Coming in to see how she's doing?"

"Of course, man. How is she?"

Sighing slowly, John leaned forward and tucked a dark strand behind her ear. "Her main thing is just exhaustion and not being medicated for over four days. She's dehydrated, hasn't eaten anything decent for days and has a broken wrist."

"How bad is it?"

"Two fractures and one they believe is a spiral fracture. Looked like one of the men grabbed her right wrist and twisted it so hard, it cracked the bone." He inhaled a deep breath to steady his nerves before continuing. "The blood they found in the warehouse office? That's from her lip when she was smacked a few times. She put up a fight for a while from the defensive bruises and cuts she has."

Tutoula nodded his head and asked slowly, "What about sexual trauma?"

John shook his head and his partner sighed in relief. "They found nothing to indicate she was raped and she never said anything to indicate them when they asked her." He looked up at his dark friend with a sad smile and said, "There is still no reason to apologize to me about what happened. It wasn't your fault and you know that, right?" He nodded in understanding. "Once she's awake, you're more then welcome to request time to be alone with her to talk things over, once she's stable enough to think clearly of course."

He nodded. "How focused was she when you grabbed her at the scene?"

"Not focused at all. She fought me in fear it was the man who I shot to protect her. From what I'm guessing, she was on her last leg for survival." He explained in a low voice as she stirred slightly in the hospital bed. They both waited until she stopped moving and seemingly falling back into a deep sleep. "I know she's safe and sound now, but I just want her to wake up." He grabbed for a tissue and coughed a dry cough, a sign he was still fighting his flu. "I want to take some rest, but that's going to have to wait."

"When she wakes up and you're still here, she's going to be more worried about you then she will be about herself, Munch." Fin explained. "Go home and get some rest, bro. I'll watch her if you want." When his partner didn't move, Fin walked over and lifted him up with a hand under his arm. "C'mon now. We both don't need to see her flipping out over how unwell you still are and swinging that cast of her's around. Do we really need to see that?"

Munch shook his head in agreement and headed out after touching her cheek once more with his hand. "You'd better call the second she wakes up."

"I will! Now get going or I'll kick your bony ass out."

* * *

"How's the state of Patrick Newmaner?" Cragen asked Elliot and Olivia once they returned from the crime scene.

Elliot shook his head and said, "He's in surgery, but there's extensive damage to his spine from being stabbed several times by Rob. He's in critical condition and the next twenty-four hours are going to be rough for him." Don nodded in understanding and leaned back in his chair. "Sir, was it just me or did Patrick really push Maria out and away from Rob?"

"It appeared so. Guess the man had a change of heart and wanted to save her from being murdered since his buddy wasn't letting down. How is she doing?"

Benson tilted her head to one side and gave a small shrug. "She's stable and resting. She's sporting a broken right wrist, but that'll heal in a few weeks' time. They're weaning her back on her medications so it won't cause a shock her already weak system. Doesn't look like she's had a real meal for a while and she's dehydrated. We got her just in time with only one casualty and it was out of defense."

"Let's not rush her when it comes to the trial. She was already dealing with PTSD and now she's going to have more to add to the weight on her shoulders. For all we know, she's crawled back into her hole to hide from the world." Cragen sighed as he answered his ringing phone.

M-M

Leaning back in the reclining chair, Fin flipped a page in the newspaper as he kept watch over Maria who was still in deep sleep. An hour after John left, she rolled over onto her side with her left hand in a fist in front of her mouth. If he didn't know her, he would have thought she was sucking her thumb as mental comfort as she slept. But since he knew her, she kept her hand close to her face as some kind of comfort since she only that when troubled and John wasn't near her to comfort her.

Looking up from his page, he quickly noticed she was stirring awake and her eyes opened. Seeing her blink from the lights in the room, he stood up and lowered them to make her comfortable."Hey, baby," He whispered, pulling his phone to call Munch. "Hey, man. She's awake." Snapping his phone shut, he pulled the chair closer and leaned down to get her attention. "You awake are did you train yourself to sleep with your eyes open?"

"Very funny." She cracked a small smile for the first time since being abducted and made an effort to sit up. "Man, I hurt all over," She sighed and checked over the white plaster cast on her wrist. "Where's John?"

Placing the newspaper on the floor, he answered, "I sent him home for some rest. He still has the flu and has pushed himself hard when he found out you were missing." Maria lowered her eyes and exhaled a slow breath. "I just called him and he should be flying through the door soon at the rate he's going. I do want to apologize for not being there when-"

"It's okay, Fin. None of this is your fault and you shouldn't apologize." Maria shook her head and laid back down. "You didn't know it was going to happen. I certainly didn't know it was going to happen. I did what my instinct tells me to do and it's to help when someone yells for help. I did what I thought was the right thing to do and...I paid the price as did that woman. Did you find out who she was?"

"Yeah, her name was Greta Mars from Brooklyn. A known pro in the area and Rob grabbed her the week before gettin' you." Frank squeezed her eyes shut and struggled to hold back. Reaching a hand out, Fin carefully held her hand. "It's okay, Maria. Nothin' wrong with showin' you care and you know that." He tried hard to comfort her and looked up when John opened the door and walked in quietly. Letting go of her hand, he motioned for him to comfort her and he walked out.

"Sweetie?" Munch sat down on the bed and waited patiently for her to look up. "Everything's going to be okay now." He reached a hand out and tucked a dark strand behind her ear. "Talk to me."

Taking his hand, she sat up and allowed him to hold her close. " She was held in the same situation I was and I couldn't do anything to save her from being killed by Rob." Closing her eyes and taking in the smell of John's cologne, she allowed her tears to fall since she arrived at the hospital.

He gently shushed her as he held her tightly to him and didn't want to let her go."It's okay, sweetie. Everything's going to get better now, love." He wanted to kiss her so bad, but because he was still ill, he didn't want to risk getting her sick as well.

"How did you find me?" She asked in a low whisper.

Running his fingers through her hair the nurses had washed while she was unconscious, he answered, "A teen had seen what had happened in the alleyway, but he thought it was a drug deal going bad. We didn't know the information until around very early this morning." He pulled away and looked down at her with an expression that showed how angry he still was. "If we hadn't said anything in the papers of a cop going missing under unknown circumstances, he might have never said anything to his mother." He added bitterly and got up to look out the window. "Some punk didn't even consider what he was seeing and he just let it go."

"He probably didn't understand that it was a cop being attacked, John." Maria reasoned, trying to calm him down. "I wasn't even able to scream, yell or anything like that since Rob had his hand over my mouth." Munch turned slowly to look at her with a sad expression on his face. "I know you're pissed at the kid, but maybe putting that aside at the moment to realize I'm right here and you're right here with me."

Slowly sighing out a breath, he walked back to the bed and sat down again. Holding his gaze with her eyes, his fingers traced over the bruise on the side of her jaw and clenched his teeth. "The dark haired man, Rob, did that to you, didn't he?" She nodded slowly and lowered her eyes. "At the docks, I got him."

"You did?"

He nodded once and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Warner has him on her table at the moment and my weapon's been taken for the case. It's an open and close five second case, in my book."

Frank sat up a little straighter and asked, "What about Pat?"

"He's still in surgery. Rob stabbed him several times in the back when he pushed you out of Rob's hold. What I don't understand is why he did that."

"He was getting tired of it all." Maria explained, lowering her eyes again. "He...he told me he was into it for the thrill at first, enjoying the cat and mouse game with the pros and hookers they grabbed at night. What was different about me was I was holding on longer and better then they could ever do and it hurt him inside watching me suffer the way I did."

"Where they planning on raping you?"

She closed her eyes and nodded slowly, her chin trembling. "They were going to. If you guys were not able to retrieve me in time, they were going to and then kill me." Opening her eyes again, she looked up at her partner and best friend and said, " During the nights, I swear I kept hearing, seeing and feeling Kevin near and around me." She motioned to the stitching around her wrist where she had pulled during the first night. "I wanted to escape so bad the first night when I saw a flash of him in front of me and I pulled so hard at the cuffs, i-it broke the skin."

John wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly to his chest. "Shhh...Kevin can't hurt you anymore, baby." He gently and softly reminded her. "He's long gone and he can't hurt you anymore." Instead of kissing her, she kissed him on the cheek, forehead and nose to silently tell him she loved him. Sadly smiling, he replied, "I love you, too, Maria."

Feeling his forehead and neck, Maria frowned slightly and commented, "You're still warm to the touch. Have you been eating anything lately?"

"A little here and there, but nothing sustainable. Mind if I stay the day and night?" Now that she was in safe hands, Cragen had ordered John to bed rest until he was a hundred percent better. He wanted to take the chance to spend time with Maria while she recovered.

Chuckling, she hugged him closely, his head resting on her shoulder, and said, "As long as you eat something to keep up your strength, let your body heal and not freak out over every sound I make, you can stay."

* * *

The next morning -

Maria slowly pulled on her clothes John had brought over for her. An hour earlier, she had been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health and John gladly rushed over to her apartment and grabbed some clean clothes. Trying not to club him in the head with her cast, he helped Maria shrug on her T-shirt. "Ready to go home?"

"Are you kidding me?" She smiled, sitting down to get her sneakers on. "I'm not capable of staying in here any longer as it is." Frank sat up and sadly smiled up at him. "I just want to go home and get into the bed I know so I can sleep better."

Munch held his hand out of her to take and helped her to her feet. "Cragen wants you to take a few days off before going back to work and Huang left a message on your house phone, asking to see you the day before you go back."

"Why does that not surprise me?" She asked with a shake of her head. "Oh, well. Seeing Huang isn't going to be anything new to me... Just as long as I can be back with you, I'm good."

Nodding his head, John picked up her pain killers and nodded his head in the direction of the door. "C'mon. There's a cat that's been begging for you to come back home and I'm due for some bed rest myself."

-End.


End file.
